I live in a big metropolitan area. My HMO is closing the mental health center where I go, and take my son. All of the staff will move to a suburban center that is 10 miles further from our home, 30-40 minutes further depending on traffic. It takes 25 min. to get to the existing center from home or work or my son's school. 55-65 min to the new center, each way. For a 45 min session or 1 hr 15min group, or 20 min medication appt.

I talked to the chief of psychiatry about how this will impact getting care for my son - his ADHD group meets at 4 PM, so he misses 30 mins of language arts each week as it is, his teacher is not likely to be tolerant of missing over an hour. The chief says "Well, I know you have to do what is best for your family".

There are no plans to replace the lost services in our part of the county. The HMO will open a gleaming new center 3 miles from my home, with no mental health care providers in that center.

I lost my first therapist in June last year, when he left the HMO. I will lose my second therapist this June, when she is moved to the suburban center, and my psychiatrist moves to a different center on the far edge of the county, 40 miles (for a 20 min medication management appt???). My son's practitioners will move to the suburban center too.

So, I am mainly venting my frustration , but also want to know if you think it's worth a letter of complaint? I'm not entirely comfortable with "coming out" as a complainer nor in having to share my status as a consumer of mental health services. My letter of complaint won't be confidential. If I lived in a rural area, an hr each way might be typical for most things. I live in an area where I can likely find 100 therapists within 5 miles of home. Time to complain? Get new insurance?